This artificial oasis is one of many throughout the valley drawing water from wells and contributing to long-term declines in groundwater levels.

Lake Mirage, which was completed in 1988, pumps its water from a well once used to irrigate a date farm. Levels in another nearby well, which is monitored by the Coachella Valley Water District, have dropped from 118 feet in 1965 to 207 feet today, a fall of 89 feet.

The decline has been caused by heavy water use in much of the area in Rancho Mirage. Fountains spray water into the air along Country Club Drive, where golf courses with vast expanses of turf wrap around ponds fringed with palm trees.

“A lot of water is used, but we’ve cut down the consumption as much as we can, and we still keep working on it to find different ways,” said Jon Roy, the community association manager at Lake Mirage. He said the community works with a water management company to conserve, and has cut its water use sharply by converting many of its lawns to desert landscaping and redesigning its irrigation systems.

Resident say grass in the development had consumed particularly large amounts of water and that they invested tens of thousands of dollars over the past five years to change the landscaping and install a drip irrigation system.

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“Instead of spraying water up in little beads out into the air, where it can easily evaporate, the water just drips down to the base of the plant, and we have dramatically reduced our water use by doing this,” said Bob Kapell, a resident of Lake Mirage.

“We’ve been doing our part, vigorously. We’ve spent a tremendous amount of money over the last five years for our conversions, and we don’t mind doing that. It’s because it’s been successful,” Kapell said. “We’re currently engaged right now in a process of looking at the rest of the property and setting up a five-step priority list of other things that we’ll be able to do in the next five years to further reduce our water use.”

Roy said the development’s water use has declined from 725 acre-feet in 2008 to 585 acre-feet last year, and the community has set a goal of bringing its water use down to 510 acre-feet this year.

Still, that amounts to more than 2 acre-feet per home each year — about three times the average per-household water use of 224,400 gallons a year among CVWD’s residential customers.

The community pays an assessment for each acre-foot pumped from its well, a charge that helps cover the water district’s costs for groundwater replenishment. Last year, the bill for Lake Mirage came to $62,458, and that isn’t particularly high when compared to other developments or golf courses in the area.

In fact, many golf courses and farms are pumping significantly more water, according to reports published by the water district in April. The three reports, each focusing on a different portion of the valley, detail quantities of water pumped from wells in 2012 and the corresponding estimates of assessments to be collected in 2013.

The reports show that some of the top pumpers of groundwater in the valley, aside from the public water agencies, include: Anthony Vineyards (7,517 acre-feet); Mission Hills Country Club (4,807 acre-feet); UC Riverside’s agricultural research station (3,077 acre-feet); table grape producer Sun World International LLC (2,711 acre-feet); The Vintage Club (2,369 acre-feet); The Lakes Country Club (2,237 acre-feet); and, a bit lower on the list, the Annenberg Estate at Sunnylands (1,646 acre-feet).

The list of top water users also includes the 440-acre JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa in Palm Desert, which features two golf courses, boat cruises from its lobby dock to outdoor waterways, and pink flamingos in ponds.

The resort’s water use totaled 1,614 acre-feet, with a corresponding estimated assessment of $177,993. The Marriott says it has taken conservation measures, including converting several areas to desert landscaping and installing drip irrigation systems.

At a nearby well, measurements taken over the years show that water levels have fallen from about 89 feet in 1960 to nearly 193 feet in 2012, a drop of 104 feet.

Elsewhere in the Coachella Valley, farms producing grapes and other crops use large quantities of water. Water district officials estimate that agricultural irrigation accounts for 47 percent of the valley’s total water use. Much of that irrigation water comes directly from the Colorado River through the Coachella Canal, and not through pumping from wells.

An estimated 20 percent of the groundwater pumped each year in the valley is used for farms, while 25 percent is used for golf courses and 55 percent goes to cities, residential customers and other businesses.

Farmers and golf course managers say they have made strides in using water more efficiently in recent years by adopting drip irrigation systems and adjustable sprinklers, and by replacing some turf with desert landscaping.

But water is still the vital ingredient that has blanketed much of the valley with green fairways, lawns and gardens. Water is the currency of the desert resort aesthetic that has long attracted tourists and seasonal residents. And some otherwise bone-dry areas of the desert have been sold with images of water abundance.

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In Indio, for instance, the luxury development Shadow Lake Estates was built in the early 2000s around a water-skiing lake. The lake is filled with Colorado River water from the Coachella Canal, which also provides water to farms and some golf courses.

Any water that isn’t taken from the canal eventually flows to the Lake Cahuilla reservoir in La Quinta, where it is either piped to other customers or pumped to ponds to replenish the aquifer.

When comparing the water use in areas covered with artificial lakes to areas covered with grass, CVWD water conservation supervisor Don Ackley said: “They’re about the same.” When sprinklers spray turf, large amounts of water are lost to evaporation.

Water use has decreased somewhat in the valley in recent years, and the reasons include the recession-driven downturn in construction as well as tiered water rates and other conservation measures.

Trimming the edge of a lawn in Rancho Mirage, gardener Francisco Guzman said he attended a class focusing on how to use less water, and tries to water early in the morning to reduce evaporation. Still, he acknowledged, “there are many houses that use a lot of water.”

Nearby, several homes had their sprinklers running in the noon heat. In this neighborhood between Gerald Ford and Frank Sinatra drives, the water levels in two wells have dropped more than 90 feet since the 1950s.

At Lake Mirage Racquet Club, resident Jim Forgette said the lakes are a major attraction for many residents, who belong to their local yacht club and cruise the water in the evenings on boats with blue canopies. Forgette, a retired aerospace industry executive, said he bought a home in Lake Mirage in 2005, originally thinking it would remain a second home.

“After coming out here weekends and whenever we’d get a chance, we liked it so much, we decided to sell the Manhattan Beach house and move out here full-time,” Forgette said. He said the homeowner’s association closely monitors water use and looks for additional ways to conserve.

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“Water conservation is a very big piece of our agenda here, and we keep reducing the amount of space that we water,” Forgette said. “Some of the sprinkler heads are designed to, when they come on, to water low so they don’t evaporate as much water as the old ones. And we have our landscaping company constantly monitoring. Any areas that are getting too much water, we cut it back.”

Roy said that when he started working at Lake Mirage as community association manager in 2012, the development had been working for years to reduce its water footprint.

Standing beside a pond with water spraying in the air, Roy explained that the community’s lakes are stocked with carp and are home to black swans. The two lakes and a duck pond cover a total of 19 acres.

Asked whether he thinks it’s sustainable to have artificial lakes in the desert, Roy said it should be, “with the proper controls.” With adequate conservation measures, he said, “I think we should keep some of the lawns we have and keep the lakes and ponds we have.”

As for the future, he said it seems questionable whether the water supply will support new developments that use large quantities of water.

“Now we’re realizing that the desert isn’t exactly New England as far as putting in lawns all the time,” Roy said. “I think the dilemma is that people move here looking at what is here now as far as the greenery. They don’t want change. They came for all this green grass and water, and you look at where we are. We’re in the desert and it needs to be done in moderation.”

Looking out over one of the lakes, Roy said he hopes the declines in groundwater levels in the valley can be reversed.

“I think that if everyone chips in, all HOAs and homeowners do a little bit more conserving, we should be able to do it,” he said. “But again, with the growth that’s happened, we’re using a lot more than what’s being provided. That’s a fact. We can’t deny it.”